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Friday, August 8, 2014

What Do You Eat When Nothing's on Sale? and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Boy! The sales are really bad this week! I mean, really bad! I am so tempted to do
something different this week, though I don’t know just what that would be.
Something that doesn’t require me to come up with food stamp budget meals. It’s
one thing, though, for me to ignore the fact that there are no good sales for
purposes of this blog, and another thing entirely for you, when you have to put
three meals a day on the table with no good sales.

Here’s what I found in the way of sales:

Kroger has 10 ears of corn for $3.00, or 30 cents an ear.
Cherry tomatoes are 10 for $10.00, or $1.00 each for 10.5 ounces. Green beans,
yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli crowns, Roma tomatoes, leaf lettuce, peaches,
plums and nectarines are all 99 cents a pound. Iceberg lettuce is 99 cents a
head. Four half gallons of milk are $5.00, which is $1.25 per half gallon or
$2.50 per gallon.

Aldi has blueberries for 99 cents a pint and mangoes for 49
cents each. Green and red grapes are 99 cents a pound. Strawberries are $1.49 a
pound. Organic baby carrots are 99 cents a pound. Eggs were still $1.19 a dozen
when I was there on Tuesday, but milk went from $1.69 a gallon to $2.79 a
gallon in a week.

See what I mean about the sales? Some good prices on produce
(though I hate to buy produce at the store when it’s available at the Farmers
Market), but nothing much on meat.

Speaking of the Farmers Market, don’t forget that you can still
exchange up to $16 of food stamps each week for up to $32 dollars of Market
Bucks, which means you can get meat, eggs, dairy and produce there for half
price. And that includes plants to grow your own food, too.

Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to come up with
menus for the whole week – breakfast, lunch and supper. And I’m going to keep
it to an average of $4.15 per person per day, or $29.05 per person for the
whole month. And since I’m assuming a household of four people, that comes to $116.20
for the family. That sure sounds like a lot, but I’m sure it’s going to go very
fast.

Here are the rules. I’m going to assume that I have a few
things on hand – a little bit of ketchup or mustard, some spices, things like
that. But most things I’ll have to buy. And I’ll buy them at this week’s real
prices. I didn’t get a chance to check all of the prices, but most things are
on sale so I know those prices for sure, and I checked on the prices for
chicken legs, milk and eggs, and those are the biggest things. I’ll give menus
for three meals a day, and the meals will be of reasonable size. I won’t use
potatoes or pasta or rice or bread or beans or things like that. And I’m going
to spend no more than $116.20 for four people for one week. (For those of you
who may have missed it in my previous posts, the average food stamp benefit per
person actually received in Indiana is about $116.20 per month. That’s where I’m
getting my numbers from.) The meals won’t be exciting, but they will be filling
and reasonably nutritious. And they will definitely take advantage of the
summer produce!

I know that when money is in short supply (and when money isn't in short supply, too, if that ever happens!) time is likely to be in short supply, too. Some of the recipes and menus are quick and easy to throw together. Others not so much. One of these days I'm going to do a whole week's worth of menus and recipes that are quick as well as cheap, but, unfortunately, that's not this week. Most of them aren't too, bad, though. They probably don't take much more time than piling everyone in the car and going out for fast food, and they're a lot healthier and cheaper.

It took a lot longer this time than it did in April when I
presented a week’s worth of menus on a food stamp budget, but I was able to
make it work. On paper only. I’m not doing an actual Food Stamp Challenge this
week. I’ve done them several times before, usually for a whole month rather
than just a week, and I’m sure I’ll do them again. Just not this week. I’ll
present my menus first (quantities are given per person), then my shopping
list, and finally the recipes. Spoiler alert – I came in at $112.19!